Friday, August 13, 2010

pāpa puruṣa


An inquiry on the sin in the grains on Ekādaśī to Dr. Satya-nārāyan Dās.

Prabhuji Rādhe Rādhe
I have a question about the pāpa puruṣa: It is said to enter the grains on Ekādaśī-day, yet śāstra also says that children younger than 8 and elders older than 80 are exempt from fasting from grains, what to speak of non-Vaiṣṇavas. Does the pāpa puruṣa not pervade their grains then? How should we picture this pāpa puruṣa?"

Satya-nārāyana Das
"pāpa means improper action, that which will harm oneself and the society i.e. which will create moral imbalance. Actions depend upon the state of mind. Mind is most influenced by food. The moon, besides being the presiding deity of mind, is also the king of vanaspati (foodstuff). It is understood that the quality of food changes with time. Āyurveda is very explicit about it. Time is calculated by the movements of the luminaries. On Ekādaśī grains are not salubrious for the mind so they should be avoided . This fact is told in the story form for a common person. In case of child or old person also the pāpa-puruṣa is there but probably the outcome of not eating would be worse than that of eating, so choose the least of bad effects. "
(August 6, 2010)

2 comments:

  1. Beatifully explained by Satynarayan ji. I would like to ask one questio from him.

    is it just the food we eat effects the mind or the money used to buy those foodstuffs also effects? One may himself cook the food but money may be from illegal sources so what would be the outcome? Please exlain in detail the significance of money?

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  2. Anon, as Satyanarayan Baba usually does not read blogs I am not sure if he will react to this question, but I can answer myself that Raghunatha Das Goswami stopped inviting Sriman Mahaprabhu for Jagannatha's maha prasada, because it was paid for by his materialistic parents. It was confirmed by Sriman Mahaprabhu Himself then - bishoyir anna khele molin hoy man, molin man hoile nahe krishnera smaran - 'If you eat food-grains from a materialist your mind gets polluted and you cannot remember Krishna'" [CC Antya 6]

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